Flatline
by SnowyBones
Summary: Booth has been shot. And it doesn't look good. Though she is told to stay in the waiting room Brennan finds herself instead standing outside the operating room watching as the doctors try to save her husband's life. Based the promo for the S9 finale. *SPOILERS* For those that haven't seen the finale yet. This story is now COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

AN: The idea for this one comes from the promo for next week's season finale. There was the bit at the end when you see the doctor's shocking Booth's heart when it stops during surgery and then you see Brennan looking horrified. So I got the idea: What if Brennan is actually seeing him flat line in front of her? And this is what the Muse came up with.

Warning: Minor Spoilers for the S9 Finale.

* * *

"Mrs. Booth, this is Dr. Akers at George Washington University Hospital, I'm calling …"

_Oh god, Booth._

She cut the man off, her heart pounding in her chest already. "Wha ... what happened? Is my husband okay?"

"I'm afraid your husband has been shot ..." Dr. Akers' voice faded into the background, as the words echoed in Brennan's head.

_Your husband has been shot. _

Her grip on the phone tightened as her eyes closed, trying to keep herself together. She couldn't fall apart now. She needed to know if Booth was okay.

"…. he is critically wounded and has lost a lot of blood, it would be a good idea if you could get here as soon as possible …"

_Critically wounded …. Lost a lot of blood …._

She could feel herself losing her composure and tried again to get ahold of herself. To think clearly so she could ask the questions she needed answered.

"Is ... is he … how bad?" Her breathing was becoming heavy and erratic, she was losing control.

"I … " the doctor started to say but then seemed to change his mind, his voice soft as he said, "It's bad. You need to get here as soon as you can."

The world tilted and Brennan thought she was going to pass out. Gripping the edge of the counter in front of her tightly, she told the doctor she would be there as soon as possible. Then she hung up and was flying out the door.

_Please be okay, Booth. Please. Please._

* * *

They'd told her to stay in the waiting area, that they would come find her when they could get him stable. They didn't understand though. She couldn't stay away. She had to see him. Had to be there, she had to. She couldn't leave him alone. She had to be there to make sure he was okay. To make sure he was alive.

Since the frantic moments after the phone call that her husband had been shot, that it was critical, all Brennan had been able to think about was getting to him. Getting to him so she could make sure he was okay. Only he wasn't okay. The blood loss alone had almost taken him from her. And now he was in emergency surgery, while she hoped and wished and pleaded with the universe to please not take Booth away.

Tears chased themselves down her face, her vision blurring as she looked through the round windows set into the doors that led to the surgical suite. Watching as the doctors tried to save Booth's life. Monitors beeped and flashed vital signs. The respirator clicked and whooshed as it helped him breath, pushing precious oxygen into his body.

She stared at his face. Devoid of all color, so unlike its usual state of high color and sparkling smiles and warm, brown eyes; god she just wanted to see his eyes again. See his smile again.

What was she going to do if she had to go on without him? She _couldn't_ go on without him. Her life now was contingent on his, so tangled and woven together that they were as close to being as one as possible. And what would she tell Christine and Parker? How could she tell their little girl and his son that their father was never coming home again?

"Don't you die on me, Booth. Don't you _dare_. We need you," she whispered fiercely. "You have to be okay."

Lifting her eyes back to the monitors, she watched the numbers change, stay the same for a few minutes and then change again.

Then suddenly a long, loud, wailing beep sounded from the surgical suite and Brennan watched in horror as the jagged line of the heart monitor flatten and straighten. Booth was flat lining. He was dying.

"BOOTH! NO! NO! BOOTH! NO!" Her shouts of course never registered with those within the room as they rushed to stop their patient from dying.

Brennan watched in slow motion as the doctors and nurses rushed to retrieve the crash cart. She watched them put the defibrillators paddles against his chest. A distant call to 'clear' passed through the doors and then the shock was delivered, Booth's body jolting up from the table as it passed through his body, trying to restart his stopped heart.

The continuous wail of the heart monitor continued unabated. Again the defibrillator's paddles were applied to Booth's chest and again a shock was applied. Three more times they did this until finally, the rhythm of Booth's heart was restored. The wailing cries of the heart monitor ceasing.

Brennan felt her knees buckled beneath her in relief as her tears poured down her cheeks. He was alive. They'd brought him back. Silently, Brennan asked the universe to please let Booth be okay, and to please not take him away from her.

Collapsing against the wall near the doors of the surgical suite Temperance Brennan bowed her head and wept, whispering Booth's name over and over under her breath as she cried.

"Booth."

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So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Leave me your thoughts in that lovely box below. After all, reviews feed the muse!


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/Favorited/followed this story. You all help feed the muse. :) Anyway I kinda had the idea for a second chapter when I originally posted this. And then a lot of people asked for more. So I finally wrote it. Hope you all enjoy it.

Warning: Tissues may be needed when reading this. *I* cried while I was writing it.

* * *

It was quiet in Seeley Booth's hospital room, with the exception of the quiet beeping of the various machines and the respirator that whooshed and clicked as it helped him breathe. Outside the room, voices echoed over a PA system, while others called to each other from a distance of only a few feet. The sounds of wheels squealing and scraping carried down the hall.

Temperance Brennan however was unaware of any of it except for the machines noises. Those noises were the only thing keeping her sane right now. As long as they were quietly beeping and not ringing in alarm, everything was okay. It meant Booth was still alive. Still here. Not; gone.

Holding his hand in hers, their fingers woven together, she absently ran her thumb over the golden band resting snugly on his ring finger. The small band of metal she herself had placed on his finger six months previously.

That day had been chaotic; with a last minute put together wedding after everything had gone so wrong for their originally perfectly planned wedding. In the end it had been beautiful and wonderful. And when Booth had asked her 'So what do you think happens next?' she never imagined it would be this.

Sitting in a hospital room, waiting, hoping that her husband would live, that he would open his eyes and everything would be okay again.

Her tears having dried up long ago, Brennan had sought solace in holding Booth's hand, feeling the thick veins that mapped the back of his hand, feeling the warmth of his hand, knowing as long as it was warm he was alive.

"Please, wake up, Booth. Please. Christine needs her Daddy. Who else is going to scare the monsters in her closet away? And whose going to scare all her boyfriends away one day because don't think I don't know you will. And Parker, he needs his dad. He needs you to tell him all those important things that only boys seemed to know. And he needs you tell him about love. And all the important things a father shares with his son.

"And," here her voice hitched, as the tears that she thought had dried up, returned; pooling in her lids, causing her vision to swim. "I need you too. Remember how I told you I didn't think I could go on without you? Our lives are so tangled together now, Booth I know I couldn't. You are my home. And I can't go on without my home. So, please, wake up. Please."

Still gripping his hand tightly in her own, Brennan laid her head on the bed near his hip and sobbed.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed but a sudden, gentle pressure against her fingers drew her attention. Lifting her head, her tears still falling, Brennan looked to Booth's face. Beneath his lids she could see his eyes moving.

"Booth?" she asked, afraid that she was just imaging things. She waited a beat, watching him closely. At first he was still, the only movement that of his chest gently rising and falling as he breathed.

Until she felt it again, a gentle pressure against her fingers. He was squeezing her hand!

"Booth?" she asked again, her eyes filling once more with water.

Minutes ticked away but nothing else happened. Yet those squeezes to her fingers gave her hope. He would wake up now. She was certain of it.

Squeezing his hand again, Brennan raised it to her lips and pressed a gentle kiss to his knuckles, "Wake up soon, Booth."

* * *

So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know by leaving a review in the lovely box below. Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

AN: So after watching the season finale on Monday I decided to add another chapter to this story. If you haven't seen the season finale yet then I suggest avoiding reading this. Otherwise, please enjoy. Also, there MAY be one last chapter to this. Or I might post the thing I'm writing as a separate one-shot. Haven't decided yet. So for now consider this fic completed.

Summary: This chapter is my take on that final scene in the hospital when the agents drag Brennan away from Booth.

* * *

Her bedside vigil had gone on uninterrupted for several hours before the first agents came in. She hardly noticed the slight creaking of the door as it was pushed open; or the sounds of the men's footsteps as they approached the bed.

"Excuse me, Dr. Brennan? I need you to step away from the bed please," one of the men said by way of greeting.

Lifting her head from where it had been resting on the mattress as she continued to hold Booth's hand, Brennan looked at the two men, both obviously FBI agents and also obviously here on official business.

"What?" she asked confused, her heart pounding in her chest. Some instinct, one she was loath to acknowledge, told her that whatever these men were here for, it wasn't anything good.

"Ma'am, we can't discuss why we are here, but if you would please, just step away from the bed and go out to the waiting area, someone will be along shortly to explain the situation to you," the second agent explained.

"What do you mean you can't discuss it? I'm his _wife_! What is going on?" Brennan asked standing. Her heart was now beating triple time. What was going on? Was someone still after Booth?

The agents ignored her questions and simply repeated that she needed to leave the room. Again she voiced her protests. "I am _not_ leaving my husband here. Not without an explanation. What is going on!? Is someone still after Booth? Is that why you're here?"

The very thought that someone was still after him made her stomach churn sickly. No, they couldn't. Wasn't once enough?

She watched the two agents exchange looks and something about the looks made her heart nearly stop. Then it clicked in her mind in the next instant with horrifying clarity. They weren't here to protect Booth. They were there to _arrest_ him.

Opening her mouth to once more protest what was happening, Brennan was interrupted by the door to the hospital room opening again as Deputy Director Stark entered. His face was set in a grim, but determined expression.

Her blood froze. This was bad.

"Dr. Brennan, what are you still doing here?" he asked his surprise evident. Turning to the two agents now standing near Booth's hospital bed, he posed the same question to them.

"We just arrived, sir. And so far Dr. Brennan has refused to leave," the taller of the two agents told his boss.

"Agent Riley, would you please escort Dr. Brennan out of the room and take her into custody? " Stark ordered.

Agent Riley stepped forward placing a hand around her upper arm, attempting to tug her away from the bed and Booth.

"Take me …NO! Take your hands off me! NO!" Brennan scratched, clawed, and tried to plant her feet on the floor, anything to resist them pulling her away from Booth.

Agent Riley's arms locked tightly around her frame as she fought, her feet dragging and scraping along the floor, the heel of one boot snapping in protest of her continued resistance. He pulled harder as she resisted and she watched in slow motion as her fingers slipped from around Booth's hand, leaving her feeling untethered. She tried to break free of the agent's hold but it was too tight and he was too strong.

Her screams echoed in the hall and probably through the whole hospital for all she knew but she didn't care. She just needed to be with Booth. That's all that mattered.

Tears began to spill down her cheeks, her exhaustion coupled with the stresses of the last two days coming down hard on her shoulders.

"BOOTH! BOOTH! PLEASE! LET ME GO! I NEED TO BE WITH HIM! BOOTH!"

Everything began to move in slow motion as the agent holding her finally got the upper hand and began to drag her from the room and out into the hallway, even as she continued to scream. Blood roared in her ears, blocking all sound.

Her eyes never left her husband's face. A soft _schick_ sound suddenly carried through the roaring and her eyes snapped to the pair of handcuffs that the agent still in Booth's room brought out and began to hook around one of the metal guardrails on the bed. The other was then snapped around Booth's wrist.

It was in that moment that Booth groaned, shifting from side to side. His lips parted and a dry rasping whisper left them. A single word; her name, _his_ name for her. "Bones." Brennan watched as Booth's eyes slitted open, his confusion pasted to his handsome face. Even as she struggled to break free of the agent's grasped she could see that Booth's eyes were glazed, the affect of the painkillers and other medications the doctors had him on plus the anesthesia.

"Bone," he said again, obviously looking for her and not understanding why she wasn't there. His eyes drifted to the handcuffs and Brennan saw the confusion deepen, his groggy mind not understanding why he was handcuffed to the bed.

"BOOTH! BOOTH! "

It didn't matter. The agent finally succeeded in dragging her out of the room and into the hallway, even as nurses and doctors stared at the hysterical woman who was being led away by the tall federal agent. Her screams never relenting even as she was dragged out of sight of her husband.

"BOOTH!"

When they emerged into the waiting area again, the rest of the team stood lined in protest. The agent ignored them as he dragged Brennan, who continued to kick and scream out of the waiting room again and towards the elevators.

The handcuffs were snapped around her wrists and as the elevator doors closed Brennan felt the fight leave her and she collapsed, sobbing and still calling out to Booth.

Little did she know the nightmare was only just beginning.

* * *

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